It takes guts to start a conversation which, while controversial
and not necessarily what people want to hear (which is to say, not
necessarily what people want to hear at first), addresses
the very real and suddenly present possibility of Life working for
everyone with no one and nothing left out. It takes something
totally extraordinary to start a conversation which hasn't been had
before - ever - which expands exponentially around
the planettransforming
millions of peoples' lives. It takes something je ne sais
quoi to step out and (figuratively) be the first fish
walking up on the land, bringing with you
elephants
and eagles like a possibility. It takes something completely
amazing to start a conversation which transforms families,
communities, projects, enterprises, and (in certain celebrated
cases)
countries.
As for bringing enlightenment to
India,
that takes boldness, daring, and verve - not for amateurs; not for
the minor leagues.

When simply getting by is the absolute best many will
ever hope to aspire to, it takes something quite out of the
ordinary to develop a new way of interactively
conversing with people so anyone and everyone you're
speaking and listening with gets direct access to
their own power. Not direct access to their own power over
time. Not direct access to their own power with
practice. No, direct access to their own power
immediately.

And the thing is you can't just go to the local library and look
this stuff up. You can't just take out the manual and read up on
how to. You can't google it on the
internet.
You have to make it up yourself. You have to call
it up out of your own experience of
who you really are.
And that's only the start of it. Then you have to earn credibility
with people who, by our very nature, are jaded and skeptical of any
and all of this sort of thing, who are afraid of being
conned. You have to enroll people into the
possibility of their own lives. Oh, and there's one more
small thing: when you've done all that, you can't take any credit
for any of it - you have to leave people with all the credit for
empowering themselves.

It's a function of being around you that people get clear about
their own greatness. This, by the way, is no longer a
debate. This is no longer subject to a referendum.
The polls are closed. The results are in. Thirty nine years later
it's now fait accompli it's a function of being around
you that people get clear about their own greatness. All throughout
my own adventures
I've noticed around other great teachers, people get clear about
that teachers' greatness - as they should. Around you,
secondarily people also get clear about your greatness. Yes, to be
sure they do. But only secondarily. Primarily around
you people get clear about their own greatness
and power.

From a distance I can get how people make up things about
you, about how you conduct yourself, about what your ulterior
motive is (this area, for me, is the genre of
some of the wildest works of fiction ever dreamed up). What no one
sees, what's hardest to see, and perhaps what no one wants
to see (because it makes them exactly like you) is the you who's just
an ordinary, regular guy, just a dude, just an ordinary
Joe like everyone else. And it's just a plain ol'
regular guy who's (or what's) at the
source
of
transformation,
who's at the
heart
of it all. Really!

In my book, that's not just a compliment. It's not simply an
acknowledgement. It's more than that - it's much more.
It's if this is going to
work,
then it's an essential.
When the guru owns one hundred Rolls Royces,
there's something which sets him apart from the average human being,
yes? When the guru says he levitates, there's definitely
something which sets him apart from the average human being, yes?
("If
God
had meant man to fly, he would have given him wings" - you
said that). When the guru owns all the worldly goods of his followers,
there's definitely something which sets him apart from the average
human being, yes? What makes you so accessible, what makes
your work
so available is your ordinariness, your regular-ness, your
regular Joe‑ness - in a word, your un-guru-ness. So
even if the first thing people say about you is you're great, the next
and the most enduring thing they say about you is "You're just like me:
I'm great". Your greatness only temporarily gets in front
of their greatness. This is how, around you, true empowerment begins.

To be sure, to be around you in your greatness (which is to say, to
listen you in your greatness) is one of Life's great
privileges.
But to get the full impact of
who you really are,
it's the regular guy moments which remove any remaining
vestiges of doubt. To bring you a Seven Up when all around
you are
drinking
wine and hard liquor. To see you accidentally knock over a vase, then
kneel down on the podium and
carefully pick up
the vase and its flowers
and set them back in place - just so. To hear you vent
frustration when you can't find a paper you're looking for. To see you
beaming, your eyes brimming tears, giving your daughter away at her
wedding. To hear you tell a joke. To delight in telling
you a good joke which I tell well about the
monk who's taken vows of silence in a
monastery.
To watch you in a jogging suit and sneakers working out in the gym. To
see you with
your mother,
just a boy and his Mom, to see the love between you, tender and
palpable. To see you sitting cross legged on a beach, bare foot in the
sand. To be alone with you in the kitchen after 2:00am,
midnight-snacking on
celery and cottage cheese.
To know you as a regular guy. To know you, before any of and all of yet
inclusive of your greatness, as a regular guy - just like me, just like
every last single one of us.